The profiles describe in as much detail as possible, the products or services that are typically grouped together by industry or business under one 'sector' heading.  

For example, the in the UK, the "Packaging and Processing Machinery" sector is assumed to cover sub-sectors such as: cleaning machinery, filling and drying machinery, packaging machinery, pumps, tanks, vats and containers, refrigeration equipment, ovens, conveyors, bakery machinery etc.  The profiles therefore describe economic activity within each of these sub-sectors, and also provide summary aggregations and groupings of data under headings that may be meaningful to Clients.  Often, particularly when basing profiles on quantitative data (see below), it is possible to break down economic activity within sub-sectors further to provide even more detail, and these breakdowns can be reported within the profile.  For example, within the "conveyor" sub-sector above, data are available for pneumatic, bucket and roller conveyors etc. and these data can be shown, and grouped as a client may wish.

Similarly, the "Mechanical Power Transmissions" industry sector is assumed to cover gears, gearboxes, and transmission components such as clutches, couplings and shafts etc.  Profiles produced for this industry show these sub-sectors in detail - and can if required, break down the gearbox sub-sector to show data for spur, bevel or worm gearboxes etc.   

Conventionally, descriptions of market sectors such as these have been based almost entirely on industry surveys and opinion.  While this approach provides good data relating to individual businesses it can suffer from serious limitations that can mask the true nature of the market sector.  For example, such survey-based or 'qualitative' data will rarely define products in detail in terms of internationally agreed classifications or descriptions.  This makes inter-report or inter-country comparisons almost impossible - and masks international trade trends and activities that should be of particular interest to marketing and business managers intent on improving supply chain management or lean manufacturing issues.  Market sector descriptions based on quantitative data however address these issues.  A comparison of the two approaches is provided here.

A cornerstone of any Marketing Strategy is an understanding of the market in which a business operates – e.g. overall market size, growth and segmentation.   For industry, generation of a detailed market profile of the industrial sector concerned in product or service terms is essential.

There are essentially two sources of data that can be used to generate industrial or business market sector profiles:-  

• Quantitative data: i.e. 'hard' data collected by official sources such as customs and national statistical bodies against internationally agreed definitions and specifications (e.g. PRODCOM, HS CN, NAICS, data).  In the UK for example, data on trade in goods and services are collected by HM Customs and Excise (HMCE) - while production data are obtained by means of industrial surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 

NBS calls Market Sector Reports generated from these data 'Factual Profiles' since they use 'real' market data without the added gloss of interpretation by industry insiders or the possibility of perpetuating market myths.  Indeed, these data can often provide a surprising new insight into the way that a 'real' market sector works.  For more information, click here.

• Qualitative data: i.e. 'soft' data resulting from expert opinion or industry views.  Such data are concerned more with describing business activities within a market than providing quantitative detail.  These data are usually gathered by the specialist industry sector press or pre-subscribed sector surveys and are published in hard-copy or within on-line databases

NBS calls Market Sector Reports generated from these data 'Empirical Profiles' since they predominantly report industry opinion.  While these reports give a valuable insight into the performance of industry 'players' within a sector, numerical sector and segment data are often sketchy and not usually categorized, for example, in terms of any internationally agreed classification or terminology.  For more information, click here.  

The advantages and disadvantages of Factual Profiles and Empirical Profiles that need to be considered when commissioning market research are provided in a comparison here.  In some instances of course, a research project may require both approaches to be undertaken simultaneously.

Last modified: January 14, 2004